Last week Mark & I went to see the BBC Wales National Orchestra’s Christmas celebrations concert in the Welsh Millenium Centre. We often mean to get to the Millennium Centre (it’s so close!) but either can’t find the time or there’s nothing we want to see on. I did see this concert a little while back and bought us tickets, so we can now say that we’ve been.
It was a lovely evening, very Christmassy and warming. The orchestra was fantastic, with some excellent singers too. I spent most of the evening watching percussion and whispering to Mark about what I used to do there. We particularly enjoyed it when after the interval all of the musicians came back into the hall wearing Christmassy gear - including several turkeys, a snowman, parsnip, carrot, and potato.
We also didn’t realise that the bar upstairs looked out through the giant letters seen from the outside of the Millennium Centre, so that was cool too.
This weekend we went to London for the yearly Cait + dad + Riona +/- Mark trip. We rocked up just after midday to hear shocking words from Caitlin Adams’ lips: “I’ve not thought about lunch!”. Unheard of.
After recovering from that abnormality and Cait kindly whipping something up for us, we tubed into London to do our classic stops: London Transport Museum gift shop, Covent Garden (annual photo only, avoid the crowds), Stanfords. We also added on Cotswold Outdoor for Cait to buy some new walking boots - thrilling.
Dinner was at the lovely Tangra, which I recommend if you like Mowgli’s food and vibes - very similar and very yummy. We did order too much food and I was defeated pretty early on - Mark trooped on for a while but it was dad who saved us in the end (i.e. he ate the most, thank you dad).
The theatre show this year was the incomparable Les Misérables - our second time seeing it live and Mark’s first. It was excellent, powerful, and yes dad did cry.
Following this we continued our tradition and found the Carnaby Street lights in Soho. They were disappointing this year. Or, in my exact words: “This is shit.”. Excuse my language. Not quite up to scratch of previous years (space, the sea).
No ice skating for us this year - is Rog finally getting old? (his fortnight long cycle trip this summer suggests otherwise). On Sunday morning Cait found a gem for brunch with the cafe bar at Omnibus Theatre in Clapham. Ginormous cinnamon buns & cheap toasties. And - a finished Times crossword! Those who know Cait know that she carries around a Times crossword book with the same importance as her phone. We rarely finish them, but this time we managed it (and only looked up someeeee of the answers…).
That afternoon dad & I defeated Mark & Cait at Codenames (ha!), before Mark & I headed back to Cardiff. Cait and dad headed to Exeter that evening, with Caitlin promising that she would suitably ruin dad’s Christmas tree (ruin = cover it in homemade tat decorations).
The current bland tree - where are the baubles dad?
The chaos I expect (mine).
